In my last post, I wrote about the underlying social themes of the movies nominated for this year’s Best Picture Oscar. But the movie theater is not the only venue where real-life issues are being addressed.
On Thursday, March 5th, the television show “Scandal” aired the story of a young, black youth in Washington D.C. who was shot and killed by a white police officer. In this fictional case, there was a cover-up by officers to hide the fact that the teen was unarmed.
“Scandal,” like all the derivatives of “Law and Order” and so many other TV shows, often springboard off actual events in the news, pretending they don’t by using a disclaimer that they’ve made up the characters and situations.
They aren’t fooling anybody who doesn’t have his/her head buried in the sand. Overtones of the events in Ferguson, Missouri last August, and the protests that followed, were easily identifiable. In the case of “Scandal,” riots were avoided by uncovering the truth.
The very next night, a 19-year-old unarmed black man was shot and killed by a white police officer in Madison, Wisconsin.
Although the circumstances are vastly different, and I’m not in any way suggesting it was a wrongful shooting, it does give one pause, doesn’t it?